Should I customize closets before or after building?
 

We designed our home and are about to finalize pricing. The villages uses inspired closets as the vendor to customize closets. Does anyone know if it costs less to customize closets after the build?

What size closet, floating or stand on floor. Height to ceiling. Our Lilly master was over $3000 with only one cabinet of drawers, but we did go to ceiling.

We built our house also, and i found that there were several "upgrades" that were MUCH cheaper to do afterwards. For example, TV wanted $2000 for under counter lights, I installed my own, 5 years ago, total cost less than $300 and this was for both under and over cabinet LED lights. As for closets, we found that a simple rearrangement (about 3 hours and less than $100) doubled the amount of storage space. Then after living here for over 5 years, some additional tweaks (also less than $100 and a couple of hours) yielded more storage space that was more compatible with what we wanted for storage.
I have already seen a few houses sold with very nice ($$$$) custom closets that the new owners completed removed the nice closet and had their own version installed, so IMHO, these may not be a good investment.
Hope this helps.

I would not have any of the builder's closets installed at all if you are thinking of redoing them.

Then you won't have to worry about patching any holes and possibly having to repaint before you do them the way you want them done.
You do have the advantage of having someone come in and pre-measure and make arrangements for your new closets beforehand.
That way you'll be ready to have your new closets installed right after you close on your house.

Good luck!

I think it's better to live in the house for a bit. You will realize how you want your closets to be configured after you have tried to fit your clothes and accessories in them.

I would wait until after closing for upgrades that are not structural. Closets, lighting, solar tubes, built ins for office, window treatments,upgrades to light installation. I used Custom Closets in my house and very satisfied. Custom Closets had a 40% off coupon mailed to folks. I used them about 4 years ago and was very happy. My friend just had them give her an estimate and she happened to mention she had a friend that used them and above the 40% she got an additional 10% off because she mentioned that I referred her. So I am referring you... if you so choose, lol, I don't get anything but always great to pay it forward and have someone get a discount. Give them a call and see if discount still applies. I would be happy to provide my contact info. Just private message me.

You probably don't need to customize the closets at all. Just get rid of everything that you haven't used in the past year, and you will most likely have plenty of space in the basic builder closets.

Our CYV Master Closet had one row of hangers. Our handyman Tim "the toolman" Miller doubled our shelves by raising the original set up about 18" and then adding additional shelves, patched the holes and repainted and charged only $150 parts and labor. Unfortunately Tim is only doing garage floors now, and I heard he is the best.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/5d/47...073b4e8a5d.jpg

The Container Store Elfa system only requires that you install a single horizontal bracket on the wall near the ceiling in the closet. Then, you can hang shelving, drawers, cabinets, hooks, etc. without using any tools, and change the configuration anytime you want. It is an excellent, high quality closet system for a DIY project. Not cheap, but probably cheaper than a custom installation.

We waited a while to do our closets. We found after we moved here, we donated a LOT of clothes to Goodwill. Then we designed the closets based on what we were keeping.

We just completed the design process and found our designer extremely useful in helping us decide what to have them do and what to do after market. She was very knowledgeable about how TV prices compare to other vendors.

Also , keep in mind that anything you do before closing that adds to the price, also adds to the tax bill.

The more you personalize a house , makes it harder to recover your costs when you sell--there is or was a person trying to get close to 800K for a Begonia, good luck to them if they got it --lots of fancy wall treatments , sliding plantation shutters over the lanai sliders, I was told a buyer likes a blank canvas

Should I customize closets before or after building?
 

There are many online sources which will list the payback percentage for common home improvements. Regional adjustments need to be made, such as an in-ground pool, fireplace etc.